


Closed Doors

by fmljustlex



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fmljustlex/pseuds/fmljustlex
Summary: Kit hasn't come out of that room since he went in. He's stubborn, but Ty knows he can wait him out. Post Lady Midnight, but before Lord of Shadows.





	Closed Doors

Ty sat on the floor of the institute hall, his back hunched against the wall and his head bowed over some puzzle cube that Julian had given him years ago. He turned it over and over in his hands, trying to force his brain to focus on it as fully as it always did, but for once, it was refusing.

His headphones hung silently around his neck. His hands itched to place them over his ears, but he tightened them around his cube. He had to be able to hear any noise from the room next to him—if any was ever made.

His lips parted—to call out, he thought—before snapping closed tightly again. He turned his head to the right, staring at the door next to him, as if looking at it would make it open. It hadn't once since it had been closed. He briefly thought how they should have gave him a room without a connecting bathroom; the thought disappeared as quickly as it had every other time. Ty knew it wouldn't have made a difference.

Kit had holed himself up in there since he arrived two days ago. Ty had sat against the wall outside for almost as long.

He moved to eat—occasionally. Other times he forgot; these were times that Livvy came and set a plate on his lap, also leaving a new bottle of a water next to him.

He moved to use the bathroom—not very often. He didn't drink much anyway.

He moved to sleep—the first night. When Kit hadn't even made a noise the whole next day too, Ty realised he couldn't bring himself to move, and had ended up falling asleep in his spot against the wall, music blaring quietly through the headphones covering his ears.

Ty didn't know why he sat there. He just felt that he should, and while it irritated him that he didn't understand, he had stopped trying to. The thoughts in his head were jumbled, but one constant, clear one told him to stay where he was for Kit.

He supposed there were a few different reasons. One, he admitted to himself, was because he felt a slight twinge of regret and apology for threatening to kill him that once. A slight twinge.

Another reason that he liked to think about even less, was that he had understanding sympathy for the boy locked in the room. Kit had lost his father, had seen him be brutally murdered by creatures that shouldn't exist, not when you were doing your best to live as a mundane. Kit had been thrown in to this world with people he was taught to despise, and he didn't have a dad to help him understand any part of what was happening. Ty understood.

So he sat, and he listened, hoping in patient silence that Kit would come to him, and he wouldn't have to force his mouth to come up with something that would comfort the other boy, or coerce him out of his makeshift cage.

"You know you're just wasting your time right?" Ty stiffened at the muffled voice that came from much closer than he expected. He sat with his back ramrod straight in stunned silence before ducking his head, twisting the cube more quickly with his fingers.

"I don't think I am," he replied quietly.

He heard a short laugh that sounded more like a scoff. "Well I'm not coming out and I don't want to talk to any of you. Especially you," Kit snapped. "So I think you are."

Ty supposed he deserved that. It stung, but he kept his voice calm and quiet. "I didn't ask you to come out, or to talk."

There was a pause. "What are you doing then?" He still tried to make it sound annoyed, but there wasn't near as much bite in it.

"I-I don't know," Ty told him honestly. He hated being questioned when he didn't know himself, but he forced himself to breathe and not get mad at Kit. Not when he was finally talking to him. "Is there anything you want me to do?"

Kit laughed again, humorlessly. "Wake me up from this nightmare. That would be good."

Ty's lips quirked slightly as he said, "I was just thinking I could get you some food." They had been slipping plates under the door for the past two days, and Ty was glad that they had been pushed back out empty. He could only hope he had at least been drinking water from the tap.

There was silence for a moment before there was a slight creak. Ty realised Kit had sat down against the door on the other side.

"You don't have to stay here. I don't want your pity," Kit said quietly, his tone bitter.

Ty shook his head, even though he knew he couldn't see him. "I don't pity you. I may slightly regret almost slitting your throat. But I don't pity you."

Kit's tone turned more bitter. "Maybe you should have killed me when you had the chance. Would have saved us all a lot of pain. I'm sure it wouldn't have bothered you, shadowhunter."

Ty frowned, getting angry despite himself. "Is that what you think of us? That we go out killing innocent people? And what, that we enjoy it?"

"Considering the first time I met you you put a knife to my throat, yeah that's what I think," Kit hissed back heatedly.

"I was protecting my brother," Ty said lowly. "You were hiding while he was upstairs, I did what anyone in our world would have done."

Kit huffed. "Yeah, well, I'm not in your world. And I don't want to be either."

"Well you are," Ty finally snapped. "Or did you not see those demons destroy your house? We took you in and all you've done is hole yourself up in there to drown in your self pity. You're one of us whether you like it or not, and now, we're all you have."

Silence was the only response he got. He continued, forcing his tone to soften, but still remain firm. "I get that it's hard. My dad died too, alright? I get it. Bad things happen to good people. That's just the way it is in this world, and you just have to deal with us. I don't want to be a shadowhunter either. I don't want to be a killer. But I am. I'm one of them, and so are you. And you just have to deal with it."

When he was met with silence again, he let out a sigh. He ducked his head back down, focusing his attention back on his cube. He went back to sitting in the usual silence, until there was eventually another creak.

He distinctly heard the sound of a door handle, and he almost dropped his cube. He hastily pulled it back into his hands, quickly pushing himself to his feet as he watched the handle move—

"Ty, breakfast's ready!"

The handle froze.

Ty sighed.

"You should go. Your brother sounds pretty annoyed. Wouldn't want to make him think you're ignoring him." Kit's voice came quietly.

Ty pointlessly shook his head again. "I'm not hungry."

More silence. Then, "Well, that's a pity." The door handle moved again, and Ty stood frozen as it swung open. "'Cause I'm starving," Kit stated, looking at the frozen shadowhunter with amusement.

Ty's eyes flickered away from his as he composed himself. Then, he forced them to meet Kit's again. "Better hurry up then. My siblings won't wait, and they won't leave anything either."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Kit slightly surprised before he hastily closed the door and rushed after him.


End file.
